Abstract
Molasses is a sugar mill by-product with low value that today is used primarily for animal feed. However, molasses contains large amounts of sucrose which, if purified, could be used for other purposes. In this study, purification by membrane filtration using ceramic tubular ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) was examined. NF purifies sucrose by removing small compounds, whereas UF removes larger compounds. Based on our results, high filtration fluxes could be obtained, and it was possible to clean the membranes sufficiently from fouling compounds. Sucrose was separated from other compounds, but the separation efficiency was generally higher with diluted molasses compared with concentrated molasses. This could be explained by more severe fouling when filtering dilute molasses or potentially due to aggregate formations in the molasses as our analysis showed. Overall, this study shows the potential of ceramic UF and NF membranes for sucrose purification from molasses.
Highlights
Sugar beet molasses is a low-value by-product produced from sugar mills and primarily used as animal feed and partly for bulk biofuel/biochemical fermentation [1,2]
The sugar beet molasses was provided by Örtofta sugar mill, located outside Lund, Sweden
The results show that there is a difference in retention between low-concentration molasses (LCM) and high-concentration molasses (HCM), as well
Summary
Sugar beet molasses is a low-value by-product produced from sugar mills and primarily used as animal feed and partly for bulk biofuel/biochemical fermentation [1,2]. A large part of the molasses consists of the main product of the sugar mill, sucrose, and it would be desirable if this could be used for higher-value purposes other than animal feed [3]. The sucrose could potentially be either recirculated back to the main stream of the sugar mill to be reprocessed or used in other processes such as biotechnological processes producing high value-added products [4,5]. Molasses contains contaminants, such as polyphenols and inorganic salts, that can inhibit the growth of certain microorganisms, which requires the purification of the molasses before use in the processes [6,7]. Ultrafiltration (UF, see Table A1 in the Appendix A for a complete list of all abbreviations) can remove high-molecular-mass contaminants from molasses, such as polyphenols, proteins, and other macromolecules, whereas nanofiltration (NF)
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